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Identification please

life2short1971

life2short1971

Well-Known Member
I just received this stone from Maurice at Ardennes as a replacement for one I bought that was unuable for razors from an online vendor and was told no refunds no exchanges. I couldn't believe how fast and courteous Maurice was with a replacement coticule and Slurry stone.
Anyway the stone is somewhat fast on slurry turning it gray quickly and always having a whispy sound even water only. It does auto slurry. And little orange dots uniformly cover the surface of the stone and visible mainly wet. La Grise? Thank you all.


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It's a La Dressante. Recently several have turned up with these partial gray hue. Almost as if a piece of BBW has been dissolved in the yellow rock. The ones I've tried were all quite fast with amazing feedback and a very nice finish.
I like these a lot and have been recommending as Coticules I can confidently predict the properties from.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
Slightly off thread, I'm interested why/how the previous stone wasn't usable for razors? I'm struggling with my first coti (a bout) and so far have failed to get anywhere - skills issue, I'm watching the videos (thanks guys!) - but was intrigued when I stumbled across your comment.
 
Thats probably a question I should answer in detail so Maurice isn't flooded with defective coticule emails. haha

When I received the stone i was in love with it and you can see by the swirls that it is several layers all mixing together and they unfortunately were of different hardness and and very granular. As I would lap the surface perfectly flat and start honing small bits of the coticule would dislodge and roll around on the surface while I was honing and it sounded like I was honing on coarse sand. I could not lap it and get more than a minutes worth of honing before something would come loose and roll around. If I made a slurry it sounded like I put a handful of pebbles on the stone to make slurry with and I would be left with a serrated edge. I lapped several mm off the coticule and it did not get any better so I contacted Maurice who replied to return the stone to him and he would exchange it which he did promptly. I am quite impressed with the level of service since I did not buy the stone directly from him but a reseller online.


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Clovis if you are in the US you are welcome to send me your stone and razor and i will hone your razor on that stone and provide you with detailed instructions on exactly what steps to take to get the most from your stone as a beginner. All I ask is you pay shipping both ways.
But first exactly what is the condition of the bevel on the razor? Where did you get the razor and was it ever shave ready?
 
Thanks for the explanation - geology can be tricky stuff. I'm usually based in the UK but spend a lot of time in other locations, Ralfy honed one of my razors an old Sheffield J&H Hounam earlier in the year but I've not yet had an opportunity to shave with it yet - geography can be a tricky thing too. I tried three razors on my bout a Dovo 'diamond steel' which has shaved me well off man made hones, a George Butler that belonged to my wife's grandfather which I've had longest and I've always found to be a nice shaver (again previous honing on manmade stones) and a Timor with is new to me and I've never honed before. Like everything else, skill comes through practice.
 
Scott,

I've seen three (yours included) Coticules so far with orange dots. Mind, orange, not pink dots or other colors. One came to me from a member who had trouble with it. The other one I spotted at Ardennes, where it was kept apart as a suspect stone. But I found it a beautiful one and brought it home for testing. It's n°27 of the Vault.
Coticule027.jpg


In both cases the orange dots took small chips out the edge of a razor, hardly visible to the naked eye but clear under magnification.
The original report is here: http://www.coticule.be/the-cafeteria/message/3284.html
There's some more talk about it here: http://www.coticule.be/the-cafeteria/message/9987.html
And on a tangent also in this thread (with a clear picture of the orange specks):http://www.coticule.be/the-cafeteria/topic/790.html

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
life2short1971 said:
I can be kinda slow in the morning Bart. The bout I returned is what you are comparing to?
Click to expand...
Have a cup of coffee, my friend.:)
Yes, I was comparing to the stone you had replaced. I think I can see similar orange dots on the picture you posted.

good morning,
Bart.
 
Yes you are correct it had the dots in a deposit as well as scattered and that deposit is what would scatter when making slurry and leave an uneven surface so to speak. The dots were also through out the surface and would roll around like pebbles. I never inspected them closeup to me all that mattered was I could not lap through them to usable stone. It was a beautiful stone to hold so I was heartbroken. Well until the replacement from Maurice came. I'm ok with it now. haha
 
Bart if you know who has the other stones this may be of interest. Thanks,scott

I have an unbelievably smooth and keen edge edge finishing on this stone with a somewhat heavy mineral oil. I am talking magical shave.
The only mineral oil I have found locally was at the pharmacy section of my Walmart but its labeled 100% mineral oil. Anyway I put just enough on the face of stone where the oil could remain fluid but did not run down the sides of the stone. It just sat on top. I did probably 75 -100 or so finishing strokes and then stropped on linen and leather when finished honing. I would also recommend cleaning stone and starting fresh for each blade as the face of the stone released a fair amount of swarf when cleaning with soap and water.
The blade was a Heljestrand 13 1/2 hollow which has been somewhat challenging getting the edge I know it should take.It now is perfect.
 
Hi my friend Scott.Large time elapsed from our last conversation.I can accept that some times you get
a good edge using mineral oil but i am sure that you can reach the same edge quality on clear water too.I believe that the dilucot procedure before the finishing on oil was that which gave you the smooth and keen edge and the magical shave.Do you remember the exact dilucot before the last finishing ? Be sure that if an edge after dilucot is not decent neither oil can help you.
Best regards
Emmanuel
 
Thank you for posting Emmanuel my friend and I accept that theoretically I should be able to produce the same edge on water alone but in the real world I have not as yet produced a an edge that shaved that smoothly and exceptionally keenly on water alone but have produced it with mineral oil. The reason for my post is perhaps there are people who may also be able to create very nice edges on their stone with water alone but have not as of yet obtained a magical shave and perhaps the mineral oil would help them as well. And I would also like to add the bar is quite high for me to call a shave magical and have tried many edges from quite a few stones on this razor and the jump in quality is one I thought worth sharing with others who like myself do not possess the skill level any where close to that of yourself.It is good to hear from you my friend. Stay in touch.
 
I will be with you Scott if is achieved a dream edge on mineral oil. However the result counts.
Best regards
Emmanuel
 
Ok so I have gone back to the stone with the razor and finish water only as coticule slurries itself slowly I rinse every so often and even(10-15 strokes) and I achieve a wonderfully keen edge again as usual but not as magical as the shave with the thick mineral oil. I finish another razor as I do and acheive the same results on water finisheing and also unbelievably keen and smooth shave on the Mineral oil. The difference between these wonderfully smooth shaves and others is the razor is just as keen as it can be and BBS lasts the same long time unlike the very smooth smooth shaves I get from other stones where the BBS lasts may be 8 hours instead of 14 plus hours before any sign of growth can be detected at all. I tried to hone as smooth and lightly as I could and various other methods before trying the mineral oil.

Also I had an email into Maurice about the stone as someone else wanted the same layer stone and he said it was from the hard side of La Grise layer. I know it differs from Barts assessment as well as my own but its hard to argue with owner of the mine.I must also add he requested additional pics before he would give his assessment which I provided. Ok that is all I have and if helps some one great, but it hurts nothing to try if you want to try to get more from your stone. ;)
 
It comes to show that layer determinations can be tricky. B)

Maurice does this for a living. He's the pro. If he says La Grise, than La Grise it is.

In the end, all that matters is the edge.:)

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
I can see why you picked La Dressante for the ID of my coticule Bart. I was sent a La Dressante(I Think) to give someone some help on using and just to see it in pictures I would think it was like mine as well and not til I am holding it and usung it can I tell it not La Grise. Still a fine stone it might even be La Veinette. It has no BBW layer so it is hard to tell as it is mostly blue. In any rate it is a fine stone but the feel is different. Just goes goes to show that identifying coticules is just a guess a good part of the time even when you have experience with them. : )
 
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